The Color Line in Southeastern Europe: A Du Boisian Analysis of the Yugoslav Region

Abstract

Abstract Sociologists apply the theory and methods of W.E.B. Du Bois to cases of widely-understood racial difference, often using the historical black-white divide of the United States as a default case. As a result, there is a dearth of Du Boisian analysis of phenomena that are primarily conceptualized using non-racial categories such as nation, ethnicity, or class. However, Du Bois's theories and the racialized structures they address are global in scope. This article uses Du Boisian theory to examine identity discourse surrounding the Yugoslav region, an ostensibly white space at the blurred border of Europe and historical empire. This article places Du Bois in conversation with critical Balkan scholarship to reveal the ways in which South Slavic populations experience unique versions of racialized double consciousness, despite assumptions of whiteness. This framing illuminates the presence of race and empire otherwise obscured in discussions of historical conflict. We can better understand the relevance of a global Du Boisian project if we reject the assumption that processes of racialization map neatly onto bounded populations or geographic spaces.